Sunday, May 25, 2014

a magpie's dream

On my way back to Istanbul I spent the night in Gaziantep (also known as Antep), rumoured to be the home of the best baklava and pistachios in Turkey. Antep also has one hell of a mosaic museum and metalware bazaar, and both were on my agenda. As the bus slowly navigated the city's busy streets, which were crammed with faded bloc apartment buildings, I wondered if the appeal of Antep lied solely in its baklava. We soon arrived at the old quarter, which seemed a world apart with its yellowed stone buildings, striped with black.

The Bakircilar Çarşısı, or Coppermith's Bazaar, is a magpie's dream— under the cool shade of the tarp, thousands of shiny, beautifully crafted objects dazzle the eye. Conversations get lost in the tapping of hammers against metal, and every now and then, the heat of a blowtorch forms a passing pocket of temperature.